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General Structure of Program
The Ph.D. Program in Literature offers an innovative academic framework for the formation of future scholar-teachers in both the classical and modern languages and literatures. Guided by the director and by faculty advisers in their primary field, students are expected to fashion individualized courses of study bringing together an integrated blend of courses in their primary field, in related field(s), and/or in literature more broadly construed. The doctoral program has been designed in recognition of and in anticipation of more dramatic changes in the way literature is taught and studied. The Program’s design allows for the development of graduates with multiple interdisciplinary competencies: in a national literature, in a cross-cultural field or genre, in diverse approaches to literature from a transnational and even global perspective, and in the instruction of one or more foreign languages.
Students in the Program will be required to complete a minimum of 54 credit hours (18 courses) of study during three years of course work, including a minimum of six courses in their primary field of study, five in the secondary field and/or related fields, and five additional seminars or courses in literature and theory. By the end of their second year in the Program, students will need to have completed: (a) a designated course in literary and critical theory, and (b) a specially designed course that examines literary works from multiple regions, periods, and languages. Students are also required to take two courses in other fields, such as philosophy and theology, which would enable them to better understand the historical disciplines that have shaped the ways we talk and think about literature.
Primary field and related fields may be organized around periods (e.g., late antiquity, medieval, Renaissance, Enlightenment, fin de siècle, etc.); around genres (e.g., epic, tragedy, comedy, the ancient and/or modern novel, etc.); around literary movements (e.g., modernism, symbolism, the avant-garde, etc.); or around languages (e.g., ancient Greek, Latin, French, Spanish, German, Italian, etc.).
Languages
The basic requirement for all doctorate candidates in the Program is three languages, two of which must be in addition to the native tongue. Students in Literature are minimally required to demonstrate near-native proficiency in the language of their primary field and a scholarly reading knowledge of an additional language. The language component will vary according to the individualized program of study. Language requirements are designed to provide a rigorous base for in-depth study of two or more literary traditions and to ensure that students will successfully compete for placement in traditional literature departments as well as interdisciplinary programs.
Examinations
At the start of their third semester in the Program students are asked to take the Permission to Proceed examination.
The Ph.D. Candidacy examination must be successfully completed by no later than the end of the fourth year—and preferably earlier. It consists of a written and an oral component.
The dissertation proposal must also be submitted and approved before the end of the fourth year of study, at the very latest.
To get a copy of the handbook please e-mail your request to litprog@nd.edu
Program Requirement Worksheet
This sheet is how we track what your progress in the program.
(Note: This is not the English Ph.D. If you would like to apply to English,
please click here.) |
